Nusa Tenggara Timur (East Nusa Tenggara) is one of province in Indonesia. NTT has many islands and regencies with many different tribe/ethnicity with their own language. NTT has more than 100 dialects, has customs, culture and art of their own. This influence explaining as well as illustrate why there are so many decorative patterns/motifs woven on traditional fabrics called tenun ikat (ikat weaving) in East Nusa Tenggara Province. Every tribe has their own distinctive fabrics that describing mythical figure, animals, plants and also disclosure of abstractive as a deep appreciation of the power of nature created by God Almighty.
Woven developed by each tribe / ethnicity in East Nusa Tenggara is the art of hereditary crafts that taught to our children and grandchildren as preservation of the art of weaving. Woven motif that wore by someone will be known or used as a characteristic of a tribe or island where they come from, people are happy and proud wearing original tribal weavings.
At particular tribe or region mostly pattern/motif that they are use could be animals or people like in East Sumba style motif with horses, deer, shrimp, dragon, lion, scarecrow, tree skull and others, while many Timor Tengah Selatan/TTS (South Middle East) the highlight motif patterns are birds, lizards, crocodiles and motives kaif, for other areas floral or leaf as pattern motif is more highlighted while animals it alone more only as decorative.
Traditional woven fabrics or traditional textiles of East Nusa Tenggara in tradition and culture has many functions such as:
- regular clothing to protect and cover the body.
- the clothing for special occasion like dance party or ceremony.
- rewards and awards in marriage (dowry)
- award and administration tool in the event of death.
- Penalty/fine cost in traditional customary law
- exchange
- prestige in the social strata of society.
- myth and symbol depend on design/motif, some specific design are believed as protector from natural disaster, bad spirit, evil, etc
- appreciation to guest
Woven in traditional societies of East Nusa Tenggara has high value not only because is hand made but it is hard to make too. Making process need the imagination of maker to create motif/design, that is why it is quite expensive. Woven is really valuable according to symbolic value inside it, including the meaning of all the small symbolics has spiritual and myth value according to culture and tradition
In the beginning woven made as clothes for body protect and cover then became custom needs like parties, ceremonies and dancing and then now it is populer as formal clothing with modern design according to fashion trend and market demand
Right now weaving is one of economical income for NTT society especially for rural communities, mostly women in the village make woven for kill their time and help increasing family income and clothing needs for culture and tradition parties/ceremonies
At first woven made to meet the daily needs as clothing and protective body cover, then evolving to the needs of indigenous (parties, ceremonies, dances, marriage, death, etc.), until now an official dress material and modern which was designed in the development of fashion, as well to meet the demands / needs of consumers.
During its development, handicraft weaving is one source of income (UP2K) NTT society especially in rural communities. In general, rural women use their spare time to weave in an effort to increase family income and clothing needs.
If viewed from the production process or how to do it then that is woven in the East can be divided into three types, namely:
- Ikat weaving; ikat called for the formation of the binding motif threads through the process. Unlike the rest of Indonesia, to produce a pattern on the fabric weft threads are tied, while weaving in East Nusa Tenggara, to produce the thread that tied motif is lungsi thread.
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| Ikat Weaving. Photo by www.inimaumere.com |
- Weaving Buna; term local area (North Central Timor) "woven buna" which means weave to create a pattern or decorative / motifs on fabric using yarn that has been dyed prior
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| weaving Buna |
- Weaving Lotis / Sotis or Songket; Called also Sotis weaving or songket weaving, where the manufacturing process is similar to the use Buna weaving the threads that have been dyed.
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| Songket from Manggarai. Photo by www.travel.detik.com |
According to the fungsional of ikat, woven products in East Nusa Tenggara has three (3) types: sarong, blanket and syal with base of color generally dark basic colors, like black, brown, maroon and dark blue. This is because craftwoman must always use vegetable dyes such as Tauk, noni, turmeric and other plans in order to coloring yarn, and the dominant motif colors of white, tan, red mereon.
For dyeing / coloring yarn in East Nusa Tenggara have been using chemical dyes that have the advantage of a case like fast, fade resistant, light resistant and rub resistant, and has a lot of color variations. The dyes used are: naphtol, direck, sulfur and reactive dyes.
However, most of small craftswoman still using natural dyes in the dyeing process and thread as customary consumption for collective resistance, oil with wax and others to get the quality and savings staining dyes drugs.
From the three types of woven mentioned above, the distribution can be seen as follows:
- Ikat weaving; almost evenly spread in all districts except in the East Manggarai and partly Ngada.
- Weaving Buna; Spread in Kupang, Timor Tengah Selatan, Belu and most are in North Central Timor.
- Weaving Lotis / Sotis or Songket; contained in the District / City of Kupang, East South Central, North Central Timor, Belu, Alor, East Flores, Lembata, Sikka, Ngada, Manggarai, East Sumba and West Sumba.
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